Boy, 17, missing off Long Branch

Search futile Sunday night

May 28, 2012

Search Authorities search the water into the night at the south end of Pier Village for a 17-year-old boy who was pulled under the waves, Sunday, May, 27, 2012. STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER/MARY FRANK

Recent drownings at the Shore While Sunday’s accident can not be officially listed as a drowning, there were several deaths a year ago attributed to drowning: Sept., 2011: A 26-year-old Bound Brook man drowns while swimming in Manchester’s Crystal Lake, also called Sarco Lake. Sept, 2011: A 27-year-old Egyptian man nearly drowns and is pulled from the water under Casino Pier. He died later at Community Medical Center in Toms River. Aug., 2011: Two cousins drown when they go to the jetty in Point Pleasant Beach to watch Hurricane Irene approach land. Aug., 2011: A 56-year-old Lacey man drowns in the lagoon behind his home. Aug., 2011: A 65-year-old Middletown man drowns in the pool of his Brasch Boulevard home. Aug., 2011: A 5-year-old girl dies after a swimming accident at her family’s summer home in Mantoloking. July. 2011: A 9-year-old girl dies after swimming in a pool in Seaside Heights. Another 9-year-old girl dies that month after swimming in the pool of her Toms River home. June, 2011: A Neptune teenager drowns in the ocean off Bradley Beach after a rip current pulls him away from shore. His body was later recovered in the Shark River in Avon.

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LONG BRANCH — The search for a 17-year-old Paterson boy missing in the ocean off Long Branch was expected to resume this morning after he disappeared Sunday evening while swimming with friends.

Authorities suspended a water and air search about 9:30 p.m. Sunday, Long Branch police said. A Coast Guard boat offshore, however, continued its search past 10 p.m.

The boy, described as Hispanic, 5 feet 6 inches tall and weighing about 160 pounds, was swimming in the Melrose Beach area near Pier Village around 5:40 p.m. “He went under and didn’t come up,” Lt. Frank Morey said.

Authorities are withholding the teenager's name until his family is notified, Mayor Adam Schneider said. Schneider was at the beach with emergency responders throughout the evening.

“It’s so sad when something like this happens,” Schneider said. “In 22 years as mayor, we’ve never had this before.”

The boy’s parents were not with the teen at the time, Morey said. He had visited the beach with a group of friends, including an older man who was described as a chaperone of sorts, Morey said. The man was at the beach with the teen, and ran into the water to attempt a rescue when the boy went under.

“The current brought the kid under, from what he (the man) is telling us,” Morey said.

Dive teams from Monmouth Beach, Ocean Township and Sea Bright conducted a water search, while helicopters from the Coast Guard and State Police criss-crossed overhead.

A growing crowd lined the boardwalk watching as emergency responders went to and from the beachfront.

A friend of the boy, a male, was taken away from the beach around 7:40 p.m. on a stretcher for unrelated medical reasons, Morey said.

Five minutes after the male friend was taken away, a pair of younger girls, weeping and wrapped in beach towels, were seen being escorted from the beach and into a minivan. Morey said he could not comment on who the girls were.

Authorities, however, believe the missing teenager was swimming with his sister when he went under the water, said Schneider.

Floodlights were brought onto the beach around 8:15 p.m.

“Something like this, I think they'll continue this search in the daylight hours,” Morey said.

Coast Guard spokesman Paul Avenson said a Coast Guard boat from the Sandy Hook station and a helicopter from the Atlantic City station were searching the Long Branch waters for the missing teen.

State and local police and fire departments were at the scene as well.

Last August, two cousins drowned when they went to the jetty in Point Pleasant Beach to watch Hurricane Irene approach land. In June, a Neptune teenager drowned in the ocean off Bradley Beach after a rip current pulled him away from shore. His body was later recovered in the Shark River in Avon.